1 March
- 1875 The Civil Rights Act of 1875 Is Signed President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing equal access to public accommodations regardless of race.
2 March
- 1955 Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Seat Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her bus seat, nine months before Rosa Parks.
3 March
- 1865 The Freedmen's Bureau Is Established Congress creates the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to aid formerly enslaved people with food, schools, labor contracts, and land.
4 March
- 1877 The End of Reconstruction With the disputed 1876 election resolved by the Compromise of 1877, a new administration takes office and federal troops are soon withdrawn from the South.
5 March
- 1770 Crispus Attucks Killed in the Boston Massacre Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Native descent, is among the first killed when British soldiers fire on a Boston crowd.
6 March
- 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford The Supreme Court rules that Black people are not citizens and that Congress cannot bar slavery from the territories.
7 March
- 1965 Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge State troopers and a mounted posse attack some 600 voting-rights marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
8 March
- 1971 The 'Fight of the Century' Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in the first bout between two undefeated heavyweight champions.
9 March
- 1841 The Amistad Decision The Supreme Court rules that the Africans who revolted aboard the schooner La Amistad were illegally enslaved and are free.
10 March
- 1913 Harriet Tubman Dies Harriet Tubman dies in Auburn, New York, decades after guiding scores of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
11 March
- 1959 'A Raisin in the Sun' Opens on Broadway Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun' opens, the first Broadway play written by a Black woman.
12 March
- 1956 The Southern Manifesto More than 100 members of Congress sign the Southern Manifesto, pledging resistance to school desegregation ordered by Brown v. Board.
13 March
- 2020 Breonna Taylor Is Killed Breonna Taylor is shot and killed by police during a botched raid on her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky.
14 March
- 1933 Quincy Jones Is Born Producer, composer, and bandleader Quincy Jones is born in Chicago.
15 March
- 1965 Johnson's 'We Shall Overcome' Address Days after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon Johnson asks Congress for a voting-rights act and adopts the movement's anthem: 'We shall overcome.'
16 March
- 1827 Freedom's Journal, the First Black Newspaper Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm publish the first issue of Freedom's Journal, the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States.
17 March
- 1912 Bayard Rustin Is Born Strategist Bayard Rustin is born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
18 March
- 1970 Queen Latifah Is Born Rapper, actor, and producer Dana 'Queen Latifah' Owens is born in Newark, New Jersey.
19 March
- 1935 The Harlem Uprising of 1935 Rumors of police brutality against a Puerto Rican teenager spark unrest in Harlem, leaving several dead and exposing deep economic grievances.
20 March
- 1852 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' Is Published Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel appears in book form and becomes a publishing sensation.
21 March
- 1960 The Sharpeville Massacre South African police open fire on a crowd protesting pass laws in Sharpeville, killing 69 people.
22 March
- 1941 The Tuskegee Airmen Take Flight The U.S. Army Air Corps activates the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first Black flying unit, at Chanute Field, Illinois; its members soon move to Tuskegee, Alabama, to train as the first Black military aviators.
23 March
- 1938 Maynard Jackson Is Born Maynard Jackson is born in Dallas, Texas.
24 March
- 2002 Halle Berry Wins the Best Actress Oscar Halle Berry becomes the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for 'Monster's Ball.'
25 March
- 1931 The Scottsboro Boys Are Arrested Nine Black teenagers are arrested in Alabama and falsely accused of raping two white women, beginning a decade of trials.
- 1942 Aretha Franklin Is Born Singer Aretha Franklin is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1965 The Selma-to-Montgomery March Reaches the Capitol After federal protection is secured, thousands complete the 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, where King delivers 'How Long, Not Long.'
26 March
- 1944 Diana Ross Is Born Singer Diana Ross is born in Detroit, Michigan.
27 March
- 1924 Sarah Vaughan Is Born Jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan is born in Newark, New Jersey.
28 March
- 1968 King Leads the Memphis Sanitation March Martin Luther King Jr. leads a march in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers that is disrupted by violence, deepening the crisis that drew him back to the city.
29 March
- 1918 Pearl Bailey Is Born Singer and actress Pearl Bailey is born in Newport News, Virginia.
30 March
- 1870 The 15th Amendment Is Proclaimed in Effect The Secretary of State certifies the 15th Amendment as adopted, formally guaranteeing that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race.
31 March
- 1870 Thomas Mundy Peterson Casts the First Vote Under the 15th Amendment Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, becomes the first Black American to vote under the newly ratified 15th Amendment.